{"id":58215,"date":"2021-06-09T07:39:06","date_gmt":"2021-06-09T12:39:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=58215"},"modified":"2021-06-09T07:39:06","modified_gmt":"2021-06-09T12:39:06","slug":"credibility-from-apparent-hypocrisy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=58215","title":{"rendered":"Credibility from Apparent Hypocrisy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Credibility from Apparent Hypocrisy<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/header>\n
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Flip the script! Image by Gerhard G. from Pixabay<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Purveyors of unpopular messages are often scrutinized for any inconsistent, seemingly hypocritical behavior that might give lie to their preachings and be used to discredit the unwelcome perspective. A famous example is Al Gore\u2019s heavy air travel schedule to spread the word and take action against climate change, resulting in an enormous CO2<\/sub>\u00a0footprint. If we all behaved that way, the very problem at hand would be substantially exacerbated.<\/p>\n

Such accusations either knowingly or pathetically miss the obvious point that the\u00a0net<\/em>\u00a0effect of Al Gore\u2019s efforts may be positive owing to the simple idea of a lever: a little expenditure here can counteract vast expenditures elsewhere for an overall gain on the problem. For many, the glaring superficial contradiction is enough ammunition to discredit the entire enterprise.<\/p>\n

But identifying possible hypocrisy in those who warn of future perils, as\u00a0I have done<\/a>, has a dark edge: if even\u00a0those<\/em>\u00a0cognizant individuals cannot get away from behaviors they know to be damaging, doesn\u2019t that only\u00a0amplify<\/b>\u00a0the severity of the warning?<\/p>\n

This is the part where I confess various behaviors that would seem to be inconsistent with my writings. It is true that my energy and resource footprints are far below the U.S. average\u2014in electricity, methane, gasoline, food, and consumerism. I re-evaluated my footprint in comparison to average Americans in\u00a0Chapter 20 of my textbook<\/a>, confirming a factor-of-several reduction in most categories.<\/p>\n

So I can perhaps justify\u00a0some<\/em>\u00a0sense of credibility in putting my money where my mouth is. Or more accurately, I\u00a0refrain<\/em>\u00a0from putting money places in accordance to what comes out of my mouth (and fingers). It can be hard to separate ecological responsibility from just being a cheapskate.<\/p>\n

\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Credibility from Apparent Hypocrisy Flip the script! Image by Gerhard G. from Pixabay Purveyors of unpopular messages are often scrutinized for any inconsistent, seemingly hypocritical behavior that might give lie to their preachings and be used to discredit the unwelcome perspective. A famous example is Al Gore\u2019s heavy air travel schedule to spread the word […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6],"tags":[4835,9128,1236,31103],"class_list":["post-58215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","category-liberty","tag-credibility","tag-do-the-math","tag-hypocrisy","tag-tom-murphy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58215"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58216,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58215\/revisions\/58216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}